Democracy Update - January 2019

Updated: May 7, 2019

Good morning,

It’s Dan Petegorsky from NCRP. I’ll be sending out information, updates, tips to NCRP members whose work falls under our Democracy movement area. Our goal is to make sure NCRP nonprofit members are the most informed and educated when it comes to understanding the sector and feeling empowered. Here are the updates that I have for you today:

1) New c(4) Funding Sources
One encouraging trend we saw during the 2018 election cycle was the emergence of collaborative progressive initiatives directing funding to grassroots community organizations engaged in both election campaigns and ongoing organizing. These included Way to Win, Movement Voter Project and Black Voters Matter Fund. Way to Win ED Tory Gavito will have a piece on their work in our upcoming edition of Responsive Philanthropy.

2) Heartland Fund
Another collaborative (c3) donor initiative is the Heartland Fund, which recently announced its first round of grants, giving $500,000 to a portfolio of nine groups, all focused on supporting grassroots and regional efforts to build the power of vulnerable and historically marginalized communities in the Midwest.

3) A Watershed Moment for Latino Voter Mobilization
2018 represented a watershed for Latino voter mobilization. A study by the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Initiative (LPPI) concluded that the Latino vote increased by 96% over 2014, compared to a 37% increase in the non-Latino voter!

4) Unrig It
Finally, if you’re within striking distance of Nashville at the end of March, the Unrig Summit will bring together a large gathering of activists and leaders from across the country to focus on changing the systems that have thwarted many of our democracy efforts.